Hubs learn lessons, pound Railroaders

October 21, 2000|By DAN KAUFFMAN

Hubs learn lessons, pound Railroaders

Sometimes, it's better to remember a loss than to forget.

North Hagerstown came out Friday night with its 42-0 loss to Middletown still fresh in their minds. This time, when the final whistle blew, it was Brunswick left to pick up the pieces after the Hubs capitalized on their opportunities and played near-flawless football for a 34-14 victory over the Railroaders in a Monocacy Valley Athletic League game.

"We came off a hard loss last week, and we wanted to show everyone we weren't the kind of team we showed last week," North running back Paul Berry said.

Brunswick (1-6, 1-5) appeared to take an early lead just seconds into the game on Brandon Dykes' 57-yard run into the end zone. But a clipping call negated the play and put the Railroaders into a third-and-21 situation, from which Brunswick had to punt.

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On its ensuing drive, North (4-3, 4-2) went 48 yards on 10 plays. Tanner Cross finished it off with a 10-yard touchdown run after setting it up with an earlier 14-yard scamper, as North took a 7-0 lead.

The Hubs took a 13-0 lead in the second quarter when, after a personal foul from Brunswick gave North a first down at the Railroader's 35, Berry busted through the middle for 32 yards, all the way to the Brunswick 3. Berry plunged in from three yards out on the next play.

Berry was the glue to the North offense, pounding the ball up the middle and finishing with 99 yards and the touchdown.

"I give a lot of the credit to the offensive line, I couldn't have done it without the line," Berry said. "The focus was definetly here this week. Last week we weren't focused, and this week we got it together and got focused."

The Railroaders got on the board on quarterback Marcus Smith's 49-yard TD run to go into the locker rooms down 13-7 at halftime.

But after both teams went three and out on their first possessions of the second half, Cross took a short punt from Brunswick's Doug King and found a seam, returning it 75 yards for a crucial score as the Hubs took a 20-7 lead.

"I thought I was going to let it go, but I knew I had to make a play to give us a cushion," Cross said.

"Our kids did a nice job in the second half," North coach Glenn Cross said. "They made some big stops, made some big plays."

Cross added a 1-yard sneak in the fourth quarter, before Zach Stowell iced the win for North with a 35-yard touchdown run.

The Hubs' defense came up big late, as Matt Strine recovered a fumble to halt a Burnswick drive in the third quarter, and Berry and Robert Long both picked off Smith in the fourth quarter.